Stupid Move?

Roadster Rich

Roadster Rich

Senior Member
I am afraid I might have made a stupid move. Now going over the full engine after 46 years and I have been amazed at how tight and good shape it all is. But I took the zenith carb and separated into halves then put into laquer thinner for 24 hours. Never took any of the parts off. The soak removed all the paint (good I want to repaint) but now I am concerned that I should have removed all the jets, washers etc before soaking. This worked fine before and really did not need any repair. Should I be OK to just reassemble or did I do some harm with this soak, and need to strip down to replace anythign?
 
It depends on what the small gaskets were made of. Some of them distort in lacquer thinner.
 
Mike, you are right about that. That's why I labelled this "Stupid Move". I remembered about reading in Les Andrew's manual about soaking a carburator, but did this before I read it again, and found that he talks about soaking a totally disassembled body to get rid of built up "varnish" from the gas.
 
Once the jets and gaskets are removed, soak it in 50-50 hot water and Simple Green. Get it as hot as possible. Bump the can every time you walk by and take it out in about a day. This was the recommendation of one of my Model A gurus ... and it works very well. You will still have to paint the body ...
 
Sir, I would replace your gaskets to prevent a possible spill of gas. During the soak, the old gaskets may have rotted away.
 
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